


A Winter Night: Coda

by Unovis



Category: Highlander: The Series
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-19
Updated: 2013-08-19
Packaged: 2017-12-23 23:48:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/932531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unovis/pseuds/Unovis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The morning after "A Winter Night"</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Winter Night: Coda

It was a long, sleepless night.

Duncan asked why Methos hadn't left, and Methos asked Duncan why he'd let him live. Neither one of them got a straight answer. Methos wasn't willing to give up all that Darius told him about Duncan, about what he thought Duncan was. Duncan made a few passes with questions and then stopped and let Methos talk.

Methos recognized the strategem. He wouldn't sleep under Duncan's eye, even with the fire between, and there was still a whisper in his mind, in this place. So he talked about the last great war, when the church and this place were bombed. He talked about Paris, then, about Constantine and himself and Darius, during the Occupation. He asked Duncan where he'd been, though he knew, and Duncan turned the question back on him, why they'd never met while Darius was alive. And Methos got busy with his pipe. His tobacco smelt of incense.

"He was the best of us," said Methos. "He shouldn't have died."

"You didn't go after his murderers, not even from inside the Watchers," said Duncan.

"It wasn't Darius who left that journal for you to find."

. . .

The closest answer Duncan got was Methos saying, "He valued you. He wanted you to live."

"He asked you to look after me?"

"He wanted me to live, too."

"He never mentioned you to me. Why didn't he want me to know you? Was he afraid of what would happen?"

"He loved me," said Methos. He stood up and left the firelight.

When he came back, they finished the wine, the brandy, and the bread and cheese, and Duncan got Methos to talk a little about the village. He told Duncan about the skeps he designed, to save Darius from drowning bees.

The morning was cold and they were both cramped and damp and tired and still unsettled with each other. A half mile from the church there was a bakery that served coffee to workers in the early light, when the bread was warm. They ate a bite together before going their different directions. Methos looked at the girl who served them and Duncan saw something odd in his eyes. He asked for honey with his roll.

**Author's Note:**

> Re-post. Written in answer to a meme in my LJ on November 2, 2005.


End file.
